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World Trade Center reopens in New York

US' tallest building welcomes its first tenants, 13 years after the 9/11 attacks brought down the original towers.

03 Nov 2014 21:43 GMT

Thirteen years after the September 11 attacks, New York's One World Trade Center has finally reopened for business.

Staff from publishing giant Conde Nast moved into the US' tallest building on Monday, just steps from the memorial and museums erected at the site where the original building once stood.

"The New York City skyline is whole again," said Patrick Foye, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns both the building and the World Trade Center (WTC) site.

The eight-year construction of the 1,776-foot skyscraper, a height representing the year the US declared its independence from Britain, came after years of political, financial and legal infighting that threatened to derail the project.

Designed by architect David Childs, the building has become already become a New York landmark, with its simple lines, needle-like spire and mirrored windows.

The new WTC complex includes five towers, a memorial and museum that opened in May, a centre for the performing arts and about 55,000 square feet of retail space.

The building stands on the location where more than 2,700 people perished when hijacked planes slammed into the twin towers on September 11, 2001.

Osama bin Laden, who is believed to have masterminded the 2001 attacks, was killed by US special forces in Pakistan in 2011 mearly 10 years after the attacks.